Paris Olympics: Indian Men’s Hockey Team Beat New Zealand 3-2
The opening day of Paris Olympics was full of achievements for Indian athletes. In the 10m Air Rifle Women’s event, Manu Bhaker qualified for the finals after finishing 3rd in the Qualification, with an impressive total score of 580 points and 27 inner.
The Indian men’s hockey team also kickstarted their campaign with a 3-2 win against New Zealand in their opening Pool-B match at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium last night. Skipper Harmanpreet Singh’s penalty stroke with one minute remaining helped the men in blue to defeat New Zealand.
India’s badminton campaign also began on a high note. In doubles, pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy registered a comfortable win in their first group stage match defeating French shuttlers Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar, ranked 40th, 21-17, 21-14. In the men’s singles Group L match, World number 18 Lakshya Sen defeated five-time Olympian Kevin Cordon of Guatemala 21-8, 22-10.
In the men’s singles table tennis preliminary round, India’s Harmeet Desai outclassed Zaid Abo Yaman of Jordan 4-0 yesterday. The two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Desai, began the contest on a positive note. He secured five consecutive points to pocket the first game 11-7 in just six minutes. In Rowing,
Indian rower Balraj Panwar finished fourth in heats in the men’s single sculls event advancing to the repechage round. Making his Olympic debut at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, Balraj clocked 7:07.11 over 2000m for a fourth-place finish among six rowers in Heat 1.
In the women’s 54 kilograms boxing event, India’s Preeti Pawar marched into Round of 16 with a 5-0 win over Vietnam’s Vo Thi Kim Anh at the North Paris Arena. The 20-year-old Indian boxer recovered after a slow start to land solid blows in the final minute of the first round.
